Samus Looks And Feels Great On 3DS

Arguably the biggest surprise of E3 2017 was the announcement, finally, of a new 2D Metroid game. And not only was it announced, but it isn't too far away. Metroid Prime 4 exists in the ambiguous future of, "beyond 2017," but we will be able to play Metroid: Samus Returns on September 15.

For my hands on time with the game, I got to play the game's opening. It wasn't an isolated demo created for E3 as far as I know, as they let me play through the game's opening and quite literally had take the 3DS out of my hand in order to prevent me from progressing any further.

A few stills open the game's story, which benefit from the stereoscopic 3D. The game's producer (and director of Super Metroid) Yoshio Sakamoto says the game's story is unchanged from the original Metroid II released on Game Boy in 1991. After outlining her destination, Samus lands on the planet and departs from her ship. The game feels fantastic. Holding down the left trigger plants Samus' feet so she can aim in any direction and the X button performs a melee attack that can counter enemy attacks. The prompts to counter are clearly broadcasted with audio and visual cues, and though I missed the first few prompts, it did not take long to block and blast nearly every enemy that I attacked.

Perhaps it's a strange, specific element to point out, but the animation for quickly changing horizontal direction looks and feels particularly fantastic. It might be a small element, but it's one that proves that the game's developer, MercurySteam, is paying attention to the details.

Along with the new counter/melee attack, another new element is the ability to ping out a pulse to discover secrets. The ability to scan is attached to a meter that can be refilled by defeating enemies and it can help fill out your map and identify breakable rocks.

During my playtime I found a health boost, the ability to turn into a ball, and the ability to charge my gun – all familiar Metroid mechanics. I also found a Metroid and defeated it, which gave the on-screen prompt that I had unlocked amiibo functionality. Nintendo was not ready to explain what amiibos do in the game (though they did have some on hand), but I can at least verify that you have to play the game a little bit before you can take advantage of it.

As I mentioned before, I did not want to stop playing. The game plays smoothly, the new counter mechanic feels great, and the ability to to scan the environment will hopefully help reduce those moments where you are exploring aimlessly without clear direction.

I'm so glad we're getting a double dose of Metroid. Had they not announced Prime 4 I would have been annoyed at this game. Enjoy it 3ds owners. The original was in need of an update. I have AM2R and no 3ds.

I never played the original release of this game nor AM2R, so this pretty much is a new 2D Metroid to me. I have my fingers crossed for an HD port of this to the Switch so I don't have to buy a 3DS towards at the end of its lifespan for a single game, but we'll see what they end up doing.

Wow, this looks pretty good, nice to get two Metroid games. Hope a port comes to the Switch, if not, I'll probably borrow a 3DS from someone I know (if the 2DS or 3DS prices drop, maybe I'll get one myself)

GI's staff is made up of people who want "any new 2D Metroid at any cost," and coupled with a preview build of the game, I'm going to take all this seeming praise with a grain of salt. MercuryStream's previous 3DS game, Castlevania, certainly looked pretty, but was overly lacking in many areas that left it feeling shallow.
That noted, the original Metroid II is a rough title that has aged extremely poorly, so for once, Nintendo is remaking something that actually makes sense instead of just remaking/porting/reselling something anyone could have easily played on the hardware they already own.

As a Metroid fan, I cant help but feel Nintendo is playing it safe. All these years and Nintendo decides to remake a 30 year old Gameboy game. Why not a true HD successor to Super Metroid? And why on a handheld? People want to play this on a 60 inch TV.

Mercurysteam conquered the Castlevania franchise, now they look to be bringing back the Metroid series. Its funny they will have worked on both founding franchises of the Metroidvania genre.

Mirror of Fate was no Symphony of the Night and it wasn't intended to be. Its more action oriented in the vein of Rondo of Blood. MoF was a good sidescroller 2.5D game and its even better on the PS3!!!

They've certainly chosen the correct Metroid game to remake, considering how outdated it now is and how the original has already been remade for the GBA. I just hope MercurySteam does a better job of 2D Metroid than it did of 2D Castlevania.

I'll take something like this over another "Other M" type of situation and sure there are people out there who liked M, but I was compeltely turned off by it, so a return to form, even in a remake situation is better than Federation, Other M or nothing type of scenario. However, Nintendo sure sat on this for a LONG time. This almost feels like a title that is about 3-5 years late. Had there been a brand new Metroid game for the Switch and it looked promising and such...you may have had me actually shell out for a Switch.